Is Kirby Smart Alabama's Coach in Waiting Under Nick Saban?

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, FL) — Kirby Smart is the current defensive coordinator at the University of Alabama . He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, and when Mama came calling for him to come home, he turned them down to stay in his present job at Alabama rather than take the same job at his alma mater.

To some, that raised questions. With Richt seemingly in a funk trying to get Georgia to the next level, many thought Smart should have taken the job so that he could wait in the wings should the Bulldog faithful finally tire of continuously having to defer their conference title ambitions.

Georgia was also offering a substantial pay increase over his salary at Alabama .

Smart won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach. Alabama ranked second nationally in six defensive categories, including scoring, run defense, and total defense, but with their schedule, many felt it was the best defense in college football.

These are the kinds of credentials you look for when scouring the nation for assistant coaches ready to become head coaches. Indeed this year, Smart was looked at by several programs but was cool in his enthusiasm with all of them.

The question is why?

On Jan. 11th, when the announcement was made that he was staying at Alabama, he said, "After thinking about all the factors over the last couple days, we are going to stay at the University of Alabama. We love it in Tuscaloosa, have made some great friends here, and I think we are building something special here at Alabama with Coach Saban. I have learned so much in the time I’ve spent with Coach Saban, and every year I feel like I become a better coach."

"I've got a great deal of respect for Coach Richt and the job he has done there and the University of Georgia will also have a special place in my heart. Not only did I play there, but my wife played basketball there and we have a lot of friends at UGA .

"At the end of the day, I just feel like this is where I am supposed to be and this is a special time to be at the University of Alabama."

Alabama only matched the offer that Georgia had made, so was there something more that made Smart want to stay?

"I don't feel like I'm pushed to become a head coach anytime soon," Smart told me earlier in the year. " I won't judge my success by being a head coach by this age or a certain time. I would be happy staying as a defensive coordinator and never being a head coach as long as I'm producing results like this."

So clearly he is not driven by a timetable that other assistants are so bent out of shape over. He is content to make one of the highest salaries as an assistant and wait for just the right opportunity.

Could that opportunity be Alabama ?

Nick Saban is a very young 57-year-old. He still runs with the players and is as energetic on the practice field as he was at 35. So how long will Nick Saban continue to coach?

In an article I did for Bleacher Report called Why Nick Saban Is Part of 'Bama Nation , http ://bleacherreport .com/articles/179022-nick-saban -on-why-he-is-a-part-of-the-bama -nation , Saban told me, "This is my last stop 'til I go to the lake house and hang it up, and you can write that." (Referring to his lake home at Lake Burton, Georgia)

So when could that be? Three more years till he's 60? Five more when he turns 62? The truth is, no one knows, not even Nick Saban at this point. But after the Saban's figure it out, you can bet that Kirby will be the next to know.

He has been with Nick Saban for all but one season since 2006, and the two are close. There's a mutual admiration between the two that is both sincere and deserved.

"We're very pleased and happy that Kirby is going to be staying here at the University of Alabama with us," Saban said at Kirby's press conference in which he announced he was staying put. "He's done a fabulous job for us. He's one of the finest assistant coaches in the country."

And Smart has told me, "You can't learn more from one person than you can from Nick Saban. Some coaches have one or two areas of coaching down pat, he has them all."

So unlike some head coach / assistant coach situations, there's certainly no animosity or jealousy in place. So why not go ahead and declare Smart the coach in waiting?

First of all, it's premature. With no foreseeable end to Saban's time as head coach, it would be silly. Many are beginning to question whether Will Muschamp will wait more than another year or two at Texas before tiring of it.

Secondly, new NCAA rules limit the amount of contact a coach in waiting may have with prospective recruits, and since Smart is one of the better recruiters, it just doesn't make sense to hamstring his recruiting efforts with such a title.

Thirdly, would the future Alabama administration be willing to turn the program over to an assistant coach no matter how good an assistant he has been? That is something that remains to be seen.

Saban has publicly and privately told his assistants that he holds no grudge against anyone for leaving for a higher position, only for moving to a lateral one.

In fact, at Kirby's press conference, Saban reiterated that point by saying, "You expect guys like Kirby to get lots of opportunities to do things, and we want to continue to help him continue to develop his career here so that when he leaves here it's going to be to be as a head coach and probably in a very good situation. So we're excited about that. We're happy for him and his family. It's very pleasing to us."

So while it's certainly far too early for "coach in waiting" talk at Alabama, it is nice to know that there are people in place who could step up should the need arise. Kirby Smart has shown himself to be one such man.